Response: The Man Who Was Almost a Man

After reading "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" I would consider it to be a rather sad and disappointing story in the sense that the boy, the main character, fails to show growth throughout the story. He so desperately wants to be a man and be grown up but his actions show that he is still immature in judgement and responsibility. The reader is lead to this realization in many places throughout the story and the conclusion of the story is especially telling of Dave's continuing immaturity.

To Dave, the gun means manhood and independence. He doesn't even receive the money from his own pay check yet so he has never bought anything like this on his own. He also is still too intimidated to directly ask his father for the money and permission to buy the gun. These things all show signs of immaturity in Dave. His desire to be considered a man has not yet translated over to his actions and he still acts like a boy. His decision to get on the train at the end of the story tells me that he is still very immature because he is running from his problems. He has created a mess for himself and rather than doing the work to clean things up and make things right with his boss and family, he runs. After disobeying his mother, shooting the gun and killing Jenny, he is in trouble with his boss and family and he is incredibly ashamed. In this shame, he makes another poor decision and lies about what he has done with the gun. The gun goes from representing his freedom, independence and manhood to representing his boyish and shameful actions and thought processes, onto which he is still clinging. This choice, of course, leads to more trouble and the growth of bitter emotions inside of the boy. He got off the hook relatively easy for what he had done, but he is still angry and refuses to accept his punishment and therefore accept responsibility. I believe that responsibility is one of the most important characteristics associated with maturity. His boss and his family had shown him grace for the most part, but he doesn't choose to see that. It seems to me that he is choosing to see himself as the victim in the situation because he will have to work for a long time to pay for Jenny. This thinking is twisted and doesn't fit with the model of manliness and maturity that I believe he is looking for.

I think that this story goes to show that maturity and growth cannot come from physical events in someones life. Symbols of maturity are just that, symbolic. They don't mean anything unless the person receiving the symbol is ready for it. For Dave, it was the gun. He wanted a gun because of the message it would send to the people around him. He thought that he would get respect by carrying a gun. He quickly found out that this isn't the case, but was not able to follow through and take responsibility when the opportunity to do so arose. In my opinion, if he were to have stayed, told the truth about the gun and not emptied it he would be much better off in terms of being a man. But he didn't, and that is why I believe he was only "almost a man."